Sony confirms Transmeta deal

CE giant will use Crusoe in sub-notebooks

Sony yesterday admitted that reports claiming it plans to ship a version of its Vaio C1 sub-notebook based on Transmeta's Crusoe chip are correct.

"The new C1 will be launched for year-end sale," a Sony spokesman told Reuters. "Crusoe meets the needs of the C1, which is the smallest model in the Vaio series and is equipped with a power-hungry CCD camera."

Sony's plans to use a Transmeta chip in a new C1 was leaked on Monday by a company insider, who also said the consumer electronics giant will use an AMD chip in a new version of its 'all-in-one' Vaio F series notebook.

The move to use two processors from company's other than Sony's traditional chip supplier, Intel, are likely have resulted from its move to outsource some notebook production to Taiwan, producer of the vast majority of the world's branded and un-branded portable PCs. Sony is also an investor in Transmeta.

While Crusoe was chosen for its very low power consumption, the source said, AMD's mobile chip was selected on price, to allow Sony to push its all-in-one notebooks further down into the consumer market.

Sony's official spokesman yesterday refused to comment on the company's sales plan for the C1. In the past, Sony has said it wants to double Vaio shipments this fiscal year on the 1.4 million units it sold in the 12 months to March 2000. ®